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Final Photo Of People Taken Right Before Tragedy Struck (44 Pics)

Morbid curiosity is a part of human nature that most of us just can't help. Maybe the reason we're all drawn to tragedy has something to do with natural human grapplings with mortality.

For some, reading about death is depressing. For others, facing their mortality through such stories is purely terrifying. Despite that, it's nearly impossible to stop reading stories about fatal tragedy...which is exactly what the following 25 photos deal with.

Each photo tells the story of someone's journey to the end — a journey that we'll all have to take one day. In some, you can see a knowledge of the end in their eyes. In others, they're blissfully ignorant of the fate awaiting them.

All of them are tragic, and maybe just a little bit beautiful...

1. The mayor of St. Louis sits alongside other politicians before a fatal test flight on a military glider in 1943.

2. Mayinga N'Seka, a nurse during the first outbreak of Ebola in 1976, with two of her colleagues just a few days before she succumbed to the virus.

3. Concorde Flight 4590 as it caught fire during takeoff.

4. Actor Paul Walker getting into the car that would crash and kill him later that day.

5. Soviet guerrillas executing a traitor behind German lines in 1944.

6. Johnny Cash's final performance.

7. William "Dave" Sanders was a teacher at Columbine High School. He warned students in the cafeteria that a shooting was happening, saving hundreds of lives.

8. Final image of Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182 that collided with another aircraft over San Diego in 1978. All 139 passengers perished.

9. Ian Curtis, singer for '70s rock band Joy Division, posing with his infant daughter just five days before he took his own life in 1980.

10. The last picture of the Titanic afloat.

11. A musician noticing the start of a fire that would kill 100 people at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island on Feb. 20, 2003.

12. Rapper Notorious B.I.G. leaving a party minutes before he was killed in a drive-by shooting.

13. Joe Kelly with his two sons at Yankee Stadium on September 10, 2001. Kelly was killed the next day during the attacks on the Twin Towers.

14. This picture of a bear was snapped by a hiker in New Jersey. Moments later, the hiker was attacked and killed by the same bear.

15. The 1961 U.S. figure skating team posing for a photo before their flight to the World Figure Skating Championship in Belgium. The plane crashed while attempting to land.

16. Picture recovered from the crash site of Japan Airlines Flight 123, which shows the cabin before tragedy struck. All 509 people aboard were killed.

17. George Mallory and Sandy Irvine at their Mount Everest base camp in 1924. Neither came down from the mountain alive.

18. The Hally family before taking off for their dream vacation aboard the doomed MH17 flight, which was downed over Ukraine shortly thereafter.

19. Margaret Thatcher with her children several months before she died.

20. The moment when a hot air balloon in New Zealand stuck several power lines and caught fire. All 11 people on board were killed.

21. Final image of Robin Williams posing with a fan.

22. The last known photo of Patrick Swayze before he succumbed to cancer.

23. James Dean at a gas station with his Porsche just hours before his fatal car crash in 1955.

23. James Dean at a gas station with his Porsche just hours before his fatal car crash in 1955.

25. Robert Overacker was jet skiing over Niagara Falls to raise awareness for the homeless. He fell to his death when his parachute failed to open.

Self portrait of Chris McCandless taken days before his death as he wandered the Alaskan wilderness.

Final image of Vladimir Lenin --- founder of the Soviet Union --- in 1923.

The Plymouth, Massachusetts Police Department saluting their K-9 officer on his way to the vet to be put down.

The crew of the Challenger.

The last photo of Freddy Mercury.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the days before his assassination, which would then spark World War I.

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy receives a visit from his sister just days before his execution.

Hank Carr (center), who later used a hidden key to escape incarceration and murdered the two detectives on the left and far right. Carr then led cops on a high-speed chase before being killed in a standoff.

Russian freerunner Pavel Kashin attempting a backflip on top of a 16-story building. He landed successfully, but lost his balance and fell to his death.

In 1853, Joseph Avery became stranded on a log in the Niagara River after his boat capsized. Avery managed to cling to the log for 18 hours before he was swept over the falls.

NYPD Officer Moira Smith helps an injured man on the morning of 9/11/2001. Shortly after the photo was taken, she returned to the lobby of the south tower. She was killed ten minutes later when the building collapsed.

22-year-old Afghani taxi driver Dilawar was falsely accused and sent to Bagram prison by American soldiers. Five days after this photo was taken, Dilawar succumbed to injuries sustained during torture.

Surveillance footage of American terrorist Timothy McVeigh stopping in his rental truck to light the fuse. Minutes later, the truck exploded in front of the Oklahoma federal building. The attack killed 168 people.

The last known photo of Hitler. It was taken just days before his suicide.

Final image of author J.R.R. Tolkien

Former president Richard Nixon attending a wedding shortly before his death.

A stowaway on a flight from Japan to Australia accidentally falls from the wheel well of a plane.

Former president Ronald Reagan on his 89th birthday. This is the last known photo of him before his death.